Democrats have completely erased the voter registration advantage Republicans held this summer in Iowa.

“Their lead didn’t evaporate as much as we focused on registering Iowans, to be prepared for the 2012 election,” says Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Sue Dvorsky.

Last June, Republicans held a strong advantage, with about 21,000 more registered Republican voters than Democrats. But the latest report from the Iowa Secretary of State’s office shows that on December 1, there were about 5,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Iowa. Dvorsky says the party’s effort to identify and register new voters worked.

“It is clear that when the book is written on this campaign both here in Iowa and in the country — and it goes all the way back into the Republican Caucuses — that organization and field work on the ground is still a best seller here in Iowa,” Dvorsky says. “Rick Santorum would tell you that from their Caucus experience and it goes right on through to last month’s election.”

I find it amusing that The BeanWalker has zero problems criticizing A.J. Spiker and the Republican Party of Iowa, but when it comes to a disastrous education plan submitted by Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, the fact that taxpayer money was spent on abortions against legislative intent and the administration did nothing, and Governor Branstad has suggested a gas tax increase – crickets.

I find that I need to provide a public service to remind my readers in Iowa who may frequent The BeanWalker that it is owned by Tim Albrecht, the communications director for Governor Branstad. I understand the bias – I mean how can you promote stories that are negative about your boss? We all have our bias – I’m up front about mine – I’m evangelical. I write from a Christian conservative perspective. I’m also up front that I’m a Republican, but as regular readers know I have zero problems criticizing my party and even people who share my worldview when the situation warrants it. I also do contract work for American Principles Project which is right in my bio, so I will confess to you that I will never write a negative piece about APP while I am under contract. That doesn’t mean one of my contributors won’t however. We have a variety of opinions and I don’t censor them.

Anyway integrity for me says full disclosure on my associations. I’d encourage Tim to do the same thing with The BeanWalker and any other blogger/website that is funded by or works for an organization or candidate that could sway how they write. American Principles Project does not fund this blog, but since I work for them certain topics (in my writing only) have greater weight – mainly because I’m immersed in those issues so it is easy for me to work on them. It is also easy for me to write about local control in education, the Common Core State Standards, religious liberty, etc. because these are positions I already had. I wouldn’t have gone to work for APP if I didn’t believe in what they did.

During the Republican National Convention A.J. worked hard to defend Iowa’s first in the nation status and to fight off rules that were bad for Iowa’s grassroots. All but one of the Victory Iowa staff he was responsible for hiring for the general election were not Ron Paul supporters. Every time I heard him speak at campaign rallies he was supportive of Republican candidates including Mitt Romney. There were those who criticized delegates who voted for Ron Paul at the convention. You may not agree with what they did, but our delegates were not bound to any candidates. Even if they were bound it would have been to Rick Santorum who was no longer in the race. They were not obligated to Mitt Romney. If you don’t like that then work through the rules process to make the Iowa Caucus vote binding – not that it would have mattered this year.

Regardless people are free moral agents and A.J. Spiker is not a dictator so there wasn’t anything he could do about that. Regarding the voter registrations. We have since learned that most of the Republican voter registration gains have come from conservative independents who reregistered as Republicans to vote in the 2010 Iowa Republican Primary and the 2012 Iowa Presidential Caucus. He didn’t lose registered voters – Obama had great organization and it is tough to bring down an incumbent President who had obvious coattails.

So is A.J. Spiker perfect – no. He made mistakes. Should he be reelected as the State Chair – not for me to decide, but I wouldn’t oppose it. Like I said – I like him. He has integrity. He is open and approachable. He listens. He’s not been defensive. He’s been criticized for not working faster on ironing out the kinks in the Iowa Caucus process, but that was by design – he intended to wait until after the election before that is really pushed even though there has been a committee working on it already. So he has been proactive. I believe he wants to work with different groups within the party and he’s concerned about the grassroots (and not just the Ron Paul variety).

Because he is state chair he can’t escape getting some of the blame for the loss – that’s just par for the course, but he certainly doesn’t deserve all of it. Let’s just remember he came in after the Iowa Caucus and we had a candidate at the top of the ticket who deserves the lion’s share of the blame as well – which is something else you never saw on The Beanwalker – criticism of Mitt Romney. Fascinating. Here we see the narrative start to form from the (former) Republican establishment/Branstad camp. Expect more to come.

If you like what you read, sign-up to get CT in your inbox!

Connect

About Shane Vander Hart

Shane Vander Hart is the founder and editor-in-chief of Caffeinated Thoughts. He is also the President of 4:15 Communications, LLC, a social media & communications consulting/management firm. Prior to this Shane spent 20 years in youth ministry serving in church, parachurch, and school settings. He has also served as an interim pastor and is a sought after speaker and pulpit fill-in. Shane has been married to his wife Cheryl since 1993 and they have three kids. Shane and his family reside near Des Moines, IA. You can connect with Shane on Facebook or follow him on Twitter and Google +.

I am more concerned with his “Circle the Wagons we are under Siege” mentality than anything else. THAT and that ALONE will doom any efforts for good they may have. And it is almost impossible to break once that kind of thinking sets in.

The old mantra is lead, follow, or get out of the way. And I have seen absolutely no Leadership from him or them ever. Poor reactions? Sure. Bad politics, plenty. Defiant moral stands, yes. But, none of those things are leadership traits or actions.

They are, if anything, the behaviors of those who are still under the delusion they are the oppressed minority. If he won’t lead, or can’t lead, and refuses to follow, then the only option remaining is to get out of the way before he ruins things for God and Liberty minded folks for generations.

As Frederic Bastiat said – “The worst thing that can happen to a good cause is, not to be skillfully attacked, but to be ineptly defended.”